1. Field of the Invention
It was discovered that the hydrophobic properties of certain polysiloxanes could be altered through polymerization to form polymers which unexpectedly possessed hydrophilic properties sufficiently that when the polymers were saturated with water the polymers would retain from about 1 percent to about 99 percent by weight of water, based on the total weight of the unhydrated polymer.
These contact lenses are hydrophilic, water absorbing, flexible, fillerless, hydrolytically stable, biologically inert, contact lenses with the capability of transporting oxygen sufficiently to meet the requirements of the human cornea. These lenses comprise a polysiloxane monomer .alpha.,.omega. terminally bonded through divalent hydrocarbon groups to polymerizable, free radical polymerizably activated, unsaturated groups polymerized with acrylic acid and a polycyclic ester of acrylic acid or methacrylic acid forming a polymer in a crosslinked network capable upon saturation with water of retaining from about 1 percent to about 99 percent by weight of water, based on the total weight of the unhydrated polymer.